The Miracle
by Juliana May
Summary: Maggie is one of the very few people who doesn't quite fit in at her school and with other peers. But, when she discovers a plain white book and a stuffed dog in an old broken-down house, her life will change forever...
1. Introduction

**Dedicated to my many English teachers who have inspired me**

**for years on end and my parents who have encouraged**

**me to follow my dreams no matter what.**

Introduction

In a small museum called City Wonders, a tour was being held. None of the teenagers that were 'listening', however, seemed to have any interest, except for one. "She sat in a corner every day at recess gazing at the sky muttering under her breath something about forgiveness….she never talked to anyone and didn't seem to care for her classmates too much. Never once was a comment made within our school- not a question, just, nothing. The strange thing is, even without listening to our teacher's lectures, she aced every test and quiz given to her. I found it rather odd…" The tour guide stopped reading. "This is just a single section of a journal found in a dilapidated house about five blocks from the abandoned factory!" The clock on the nearest wall struck 3:00 pm, and the young teenagers herded out of the museum with much anticipation. All, but one was left staring with awe and amazement at the journal, which was being put back inside it's glass case onto it's beautiful maple wood podium created by a famous craftsman. She went up to the case to touch it. "So Maggie, did you like the tour?" Maggie jumped back away from the case, startled. "Are you kidding? Your tours are always amazing Ms. Mullens!" Ms. Mullens blushed a little. "Really, they're no big deal. I know it like the back of my hand I've done it so many times!" Maggie giggled. "This museum's my life," Ms. Mullens began, "Ever since I was your age, I longed to figure out the mysteries of this small world after my first visit to this museum. I first came to work here when this journal arrived here six years ago." Ms. Mullens turned to face the exhibit. Her ocean blue eyes were intent on the beautiful journal. Her face was bright, but it seemed that something kept it from shining brighter than a northern star. "No one knows who wrote the journal or whom the journal was describing. Scientists and archaeologists looked for clues all over the remains of the house where it was found, but there was nothing. There are no dates or specific names mentioned within the contents of the journal. There aren't even any traceable fingerprints on the journal from what they can see." Ms. Mullens faced Maggie. "I believe that people like you, Maggie, have the potential to solve these mysteries even without fancy machines and technology. There's no limit to what you can do with a great mind." Maggie stood there speechless. "Mullens to tour station immediately! Mullens!" the PA blared. "I'm sorry Maggie, I have to go. See you soon!" she winked at Maggie then ran toward the front of the museum and took a left turn. She turned to get a last look at the intriguing artifact, sighed, and headed to the front door. As she walked, time seemed to slow down, like in a dream. She thought of the past tours she had taken with her parents here, times she came to research for history projects and the last couple of times, including today, that she had come with her classmates. Maggie was, at that moment, inspired. "If I have the brain Ms. Mullens says I do," Maggie thought. "and this mystery is baffling everyone else in the world, why can't I give it a try?"


	2. Chapter 1

1

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" In the dead of night, Maggie and her best friend Jessica were staring over a crooked fence toward an abandoned, dilapidated house with only one room still standing. "I've been here a million times!" Maggie told her. "What can go wrong?" Jessica rolled her eyes and sighed with annoyance, "Yes, that makes me feel much better." she said sarcastically. The two girls snuck up to the back door of the house, the one connecting the only room of the house left. Maggie stood confidently in front of the door. Jessica nervously stepped forward to open the door but Maggie stopped her. "Wait!" she cried. Jessica looked confused. "But," she started. "You can't get in that way, believe me I've tried. I learned that the hard way…" Maggie sighed. "Is this some kind of joke?" Jessica was frustrated now. "How are we supposed to get in then?" she demanded. Maggie looked at her with a big grin on her face. "Watch this!" she winked. Maggie faced the door. She clenched her right hand closed into a fist, pressed to her heart and closed her eyes. A couple seconds later, her hand flew out in front of her opening her fist again as she did so toward the golden door handle. "Open." she said to the handle. Her voice seemed to echo into the vast darkness of the night. Suddenly, the door knob reacted as if hit by a magic wand. It glowed slightly, sparkling in the darkness of the night. Then, the light exploded like a firework in the sky and slowly dimmed down to nothing. The girls heard a loud CLICK and the door opened by itself.

Maggie entered first, then Jessica. With every step Maggie took, the old house came to life. Once shattered windows began to assemble themselves while walls went back into their original places. Even the old paint in the house glowed anew at Maggie's touch. "This way!" Maggie signaled Jessica. Jessica obediently followed but with amazement instead of fear in her gorgeous hazel eyes. Black, iron spiral stars forming in front of them guided them up to the second floor. This floor was strangely different than most second floors though. There was only one hallway, the one the twosome was facing, having more doors than usual. No two doors were the same color or shape. At this point, Jessica was astounded with what she was seeing. "Wicked…" she whispered to herself. Jessica was walking slowly behind her friend heading down the hall until Maggie stopped in her tracks. "Found it!" Maggie sounded triumphantly. The door she was facing had been painted a dark red, but there were some spots which were missed and some not painted like a five year old had done a project here. Jessica gulped. "This door looks pretty suspicious…I don't think we should-" Maggie laughed aloud. "You're turning back into a chicken already? Come on, seriously. What could go wrong?" Maggie said with a reassuring smile. Maggie grasped the golden knob and turned it ever so slowly.

They entered what looked like an ordinary bedroom, although the items within were strange besides the twin bed and night stand. Also, many objects were strewn aside as if someone had been looking for something. As Maggie looked around, one very peculiar thing caught her eye. The far right hand corner of the room looked untouched. A medium sized stuffed dog just lying there looked like it hadn't been touched in years, and yet, it looked like someone had just placed it there five minutes ago. Maggie picked up the adorable dog to find a curious looking white book underneath it. As Maggie reached down to grab the book, she felt Jessica grab the toy away. "Aww! It's so cute!" Maggie didn't care though, Jessica could have the dog; she considered herself lucky to find something interesting within this new room. As Jessica played with the dog, Maggie turned the new discovery every which way in her hands. Both the front and back cover was a pearl white color and the pages were blank. "At least there aren't any traps like the last room I visited!" Maggie gave a sigh of relief. She paused, then instinctively put the book facing up onto her left hand and covered it with her right hand. Suddenly, it began to shine with a soft blue light. She cocked her head. "I wonder who owned this book…" she thought to herself. As if the book had read her thoughts, she saw the books pages turn rapidly until it stopped in the very middle. She saw a brilliant light emerge from the book then everything went black. She felt her vision coming back to her and couple seconds later. She realized she was outside, but the house in front of her eyes did not look familiar. But then, something caught her eye; the same golden knob she got into the old house with was on the front door of this house. It looked like a cross between a Victorian house and a little bungalow hut because of its weirdly shaped roof. She peered through the window to get a better view. There was a girl begging for something in the house but of course she couldn't hear what she was asking for. They obviously got their way after a few minutes because she began jumping up and down then ran out the door. Maggie jumped up and began to run after her, but there was another blinding flash and when her vision came back to her, she found herself floating a couple feet away from the girl who was now in a full sprint. She looked ahead to where she was looking and saw a frightening sight: her beloved museum, the City Wonders was not there. The old sign of the museum still held on, but was just leaning on some wood to keep it up. There was also another sign on the property that said:

_**The City Wonder Museum is being**_

_**rebuilt by request of the mayor.**_

The sign seemed to freeze permanently in her head like someone took a picture of it and glued it to her face. For some reason the 're' in rebuilt had been crossed out with red paint. She ignored the sprinting girl for a moment and ran to the sign. She walked around it once, but then darted back to the back of the sign again when she saw:

**_YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!_**

**_YOU CAN'T STOP ME!!_**

**_- M _**

"Who is M and why was the museum destroyed while the other houses are just fine?" she thought. There was another blinding flash. Now she was inside a gigantic grey building where hundreds of people were walking around with their children going in and out of different rooms. The girl from before came bursting in through the massive double doors of this building, although no one seemed to notice her. She ran bee-line toward a door labeled 'CONFIDENTIAL' forming unreadable hand signs. She began to glow with a soft blue light as she pushed open the 'confidential' room. There was yet another blinding flash and she found herself inside the confidential room. She found herself very confused in this room. There were monitors and computers all over the place with some showing places where the people were, but others showed places outside of the building too. Monitoring these screens were not people, but many creatures that had human –like characteristics. There were some with wings, some with fangs and even some with tails! One particular creature though, caught her eye. Most of the creatures in the room were talking to her and even taking orders from her. The girl creature had gorgeous brown eyes and auburn hair which was pulled back in a ponytail. Her ears were almost like elf ears but smaller and more pointed like a demon's. She wore nothing normal except for what looked like old fashioned sandals on her feet. For clothes, she wore a sleeveless pelt for a shirt and another similarly colored one as a skirt. Maggie strained to try and hear what she was saying but could not amongst all the chatter.

Then, all the sound seemed to fade away and all Maggie could hear was Jessica screaming, "Maggie! Snap out of it! Maggie!" Then, she felt Jessica shaking her like mad. "Wake up! Wake up!" Maggie heard Jessica scream once again. The creatures didn't stop talking to each other and none of them seemed to even hear the noise all except the girl creature. Her ears perked up with curiosity. She held up her hand telling the others to be quiet. She looked around cautiously. Maggie felt a bead of sweat trickling down the side of her face. The girl creature took a few steps toward Maggie still looking around, but then, she looked at her straight in the eyes. The girl creature gasped with fear and started backing away. The other creatures obviously couldn't see what she was looking at though because they looked around blindly for the cause of her fear. The, ever so slowly, the scene went black.

At once, Maggie felt her own vision, returning to her as she slowly blinked then opened her eyes. "Oh thank God! I thought you were dead or something!" Maggie sat up, dazed. "Did you see that?!" Maggie asked Jessica astonished. "Yeah, how could I not?" Jessica yelled in a panic. Maggie smiled instantly. "Were those creatures amazing or what?" Maggie asked Jessica. "Creatures? What creatures? One minute, you're staring at the ground, and the next, you're floating in the air with snow white eyes! Even the walls were reacting to you! They were changing colors and freaking out!" Jessica was rambling on about what happened just moments ago, but Maggie wasn't listening. All those creatures, the strange girl, all of it was swirling in her head like a disease. "Why am I the only one that saw the book and those creatures?" Maggie thought to herself. "Oh the book!" she realized. But, alas, the book had vanished into thin air. Maggie's brain automatically jumped back into the real world when she happened to glance at her watch. Maggie began to panic. Maggie suddenly grabbed Jessica by the shoulders. "Get a hold of yourself! We've got to get home before-" Jessica interrupted her. "Umm… okay, but you need to get some rest not drag me into your research." Maggie rolled her eyes. "Let's just go already!" Maggie ran out the door and headed down the spiral stars. "Okay, okay! I'm coming! Sheesh!" Jessica ran after her with the stuffed dog in her hand.

Both of them ran as fast as their legs could take them out of the house, and as soon as they got out, the house collapsed behind them with a bang and rising dust. Jessica jumped up with fright and looked back at the house with amazement. She stood there stunned with the stuffed dog in her hands. "Come on!" Maggie yelled. She grabbed Jessica's wrist and made her run toward her house. They approached the front door of Maggie's house. "We have to be really quiet, or else my parents will get up and bust us both!" Maggie whispered to Jessica. They opened the door and slowly tip-toed into the house. Just as they were a couple steps away from the stairs, a light flickered on. "And where have you been?" Maggie's mother was in her robe and slippers, looking at the girls intently and looking very grumpy. "Umm…" Jessica struggled to find an answer. "Yes, Jessica?" Maggie's mother smiled at her. Maggie kicked Jessica in the shin. "Ouch! Umm….we were at my house, and we kind of overdid it, so we decided to come here to umm-" Maggie put her hand to her face and sighed, annoyed. "I think it's best if you go home for now, okay Jessica?" Maggie's mom told her. As Jessica passed Maggie, Maggie whispered with gritted teeth, "You're a horrible liar…" Jessica reached the door, sneered, and left.


End file.
